Analysis: Verstappen’s F1 title win coupled with Red Bull’s loss?
F1 NewsTuesday, 17 December 2024 at 01:58
A distinct anomaly of the modern Formula One era shall be witnessed at the close of the 2024 season. While Max Verstappen winning his fourth consecutive title isn’t a shock, Red Bull losing their grasp on the World Constructors’ Championship certainly throws a stick in the spokes.
Worse still, the Red Bull loss was decided long before the end of the campaign. We’ve become accustomed to constructors becoming the driving force of a team, powering one talented driver to the World Drivers’ Championship, often with a strong supporting secondary, which naturally leads the constructors to their top prize.
So, looking back on the history of Formula One, what does it mean for a team’s constructors to miss out on the title when their driver goes on to win the season?
How the 2024 Formula One Season Unfolded
The 2024 Formula One season was much more competitive than expected, even if the end result in the World Drivers’ Championship was much of the same. With the decisive GP being the Las Vegas GP run around The Strip, Max Verstappen joined an exclusive club of drivers who’ve won four back-to-back championships.
Even before the final race of the season, Verstappen had worked his way to a lead of 80 points over the next best. Still, a run of nine races without a win – only two of which resulted in a podium – from Austria to Mexico certainly put his reign up for debate. Unfortunately for those chasing, they couldn’t fully capitalise on the opportunity.
However, with Sergio Pérez struggling after a decent start of four podiums in five races, Red Bull saw their drivers finish with a good six racers between them in the final standings, naturally sinking their hopes of another World Constructors’ Championship. So, it came down to McLaren vs Ferrari.
McLaren get the upper hand over Verstappen
As of 3 December, it was McLaren out in front, boasting a 21-point lead and odds of 1/9 to win the championship, while Ferrari trailed at 11/2 with 619 total points before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After the race, the F1 betting lines pivoted to next season, which look primed to stick with the winners of the 2024 title.
Of course, there will be some big moves in the meantime to try to alter the state of play. Red Bull Racing look set to let Pérez walk, and he’s stated as much, but easily the biggest name on the move is a former champion who has not only landed back-to-back championships, but also usurped former dominant forces.
Lewis Hamilton, who will be 40 years old in January, will become a Ferrari driver next season. Racing for the legendary team with Charles Leclerc, if the constructors – who were very much in the hunt for the title until the end – continue to make gains in the off-season, this will be a menacing duo capable of crowding the podium each weekend.
Historical Changing of the Guard
Having a driver win the championship but not the constructor is quite the oddity in F1 history. Even if we take the modern era of Formula One, beginning with Michael Schumacher’s 2000 triumph with Ferrari, only two seasons – three if you include 2024 – have seen the World Drivers’ and World Constructors’ winners not align.
From 2000 to 2007, Schumacher and Ferrari won five on the bounce, Renault and Fernando Alonso claimed the next two, and then Kimi Räikkönen and Ferrari paired up for the 2007 titles. In 2008, Hamilton’s drive for success got him to the top of the standings in his McLaren, but Ferrari retained their place as the best constructors.
With Hamilton over at Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel steering the Red Bull, the two teams and drivers – bar the surge of Nico Rosberg in a Mercedes – traded dynastic runs where the winning constructor also had the winning driver. In 2021, Verstappen claimed the top spot but Mercedes retained their title for the eighth consecutive year.
The pattern shows that, if the duo doesn’t win, it tends to be the driver who claims the title first, being followed by their constructor in the following season. The last time this wasn’t the case was in 1999 and, of course, in 2024. In 1998, Häkkinen won the title alongside his constructor, McLaren. In 1999, Häkkinen retained his crown, but Ferrari pipped McLaren.
After Ferrari landed the World Constructors’ Championship in 1999, they surged to five years of dominance alongside Schumacher and added another double in 2007 with Räikkönen behind the wheel. Those looking for a shake-up atop the F1 standings will be hoping history repeats itself with Red Bull knocked off their perch.
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